Thursday 12 November to Saturday 21 November
Day of the Flymo
Written by Paddy Campbell
Directed by Paul James
Assistant Director Rachel Glover
Designer Phil Green
Day of the Flymo is to return to Live Theatre next month (Thursday 12 November to Saturday 21 November) following its sell-out run at Live Theatre earlier this year, when it was awarded four stars by The Guardian.
Written by award winning playwright Paddy Campbell (Wet House), Day of the Flymo looks at the chaotic lives of a brother and sister struggling to cover up the cracks and the mechanisms that swing into action when social services step in. It asks what do you do when the state decides it’s going to take over from your Mam?
The same cast returns including talented young actors from Live’s Youth Theatre including Kalem Patterson (age 14, from Ryton), Tezney Mulroy (age 17, from Newcastle), and Sophie Pitches (age 17, from North Shields), once again supported by a professional cast of Jill Dellow (Chalet Lines), a former member of Live’s Youth Theatre, and Akemnji Ndifornyen.
Actor, Tezney Mulroy said:
“Performing in Day of the Flymo in April was unbelievably exciting. After all the hard work it was so good to get such a great reaction from the audience. I’m over the moon that the whole cast will be back performing the play again next month at Live Theatre.”
Paddy Campbell has been appointed as the inaugural joint Live Theatre & Northumbria University’s writer in residence. Paddymoved to Newcastle from Northern Ireland 13 years ago to study fine art and sculpture at Northumbria University and has comethrough Live Theatre’s writing development programme whilst working in a children’s home, which provided the inspiration forDay of the Flymo.
Writer Paddy Campbell, said:
“I am delighted that ‘Day of the Flymo’ is returning to Live Theatre. The audience reaction and having a sell-out run in April was incredible. I’m looking forward to it being back on stage in November during my writer-in-residence year with Live Theatre and Northumbria University.”
Max Roberts, Artistic Director, Live Theatre said:
“Those who saw Paddy’s first play Wet House will be aware of Paddy’s talent. And as we saw in April, he has again created another hard hitting piece about the care system he has known as an insider. For those people not lucky enough to see Day of the Flymo during its first run – it’s political, at times tragic, and is packed with Paddy’s trade mark dark humour.”
Paddy Campbell’s first full length play, Wet House, was the winner of three Journal Culture Awards, and voted one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Plays of 2013. After a sell-out run at Live Theatre in 2013, as part of Live Theatre’s 40th anniversary year,Wet House returned to Live Theatre and toured to Hull Truck Theatre and Soho Theatre in 2014. Day of the Flymo previewed at Live Theatre in April 2015.
Day of the Flymo is at Live Theatre, Newcastle from Thursday 12 to Saturday 21 November 2015. A free Meet the Writer event takes place at 6pm before the performance on Friday 13 November, in which writer Paddy Campbell, artistic director Max Roberts, director Paul James will talk about the making of the play and are joined by Dr. Matt Hargrave from Northumbria University to talk about the joint writer in residence. There is also a free Talkback discussion, at 9pm on Tuesday 17 November, (approximately ten minutes after the end of the play) in which the writer, director, actors from the show talk about the process of bringing the show to the stage.
For more information on Day of the Flymo and to buy tickets costing between £18 to £10, over 60s concessions from £16 to £12 and other concessions £10 to £6 call Live Theatre’s box office on (0191) 232 1232 or see www.live.org.uk.